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Political stability under Charles II
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A Grade A level essay marked by head of history on political stability under Charles II Clear structure and very likely essay question
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'To What Extent did Charles II leave England in a more stable place than he had found it in 1660'?Charles II died in 1685 coming to the throne in 1660 during a time of great uncertainty with
Charles being King by invitation of a Parliament he didn’t call, religious toleration
abandoned and the issue of the land settlement being a grievance for many. I think that
Charles II left England in a more stable place than when he found it in 1660 because of the
greater independence of the crown financially and the growth of the wider economy as well
as political tactics like the purging of the radical Whigs resulting in a politically unified state.
However, there were reasons as to why Charles left England in a less stable place with his
success in dealing the exclusion bill meaning England was left with a Catholic King which
most of England didn’t want. We can use the criteria of judging the equality of power in
England for each of the factors and also how much opposition and resistance there was in
the period telling us the actual stability in the country.
The main reason that Charles II left England in a more stable place was his political tactics
giving him more power and simultaneously unifying state behind the crown. Charles used
his existing powers to exploit the legal system with making the major criterion for the
appointment of a judges to be their willingness to support the king’s cause. This meant that
Judges would nearly always rule in the favour of the crown giving him greater power in
courts. Whilst this undermined the independence of the judiciary, many supported it
believing that Judges should uphold royal authority showing the lack of backlash and
resistance over it not harming stability but at the same time increasing his own power to
make the political scale of power more equal. Charles also exploited the legal system in
cases by making sure that the odds were as legally in his favour as could be with defendants
not being allowed counsel like Stephen College in 1681 not being allowed piece of paper
telling him how to defend himself and also charges and witnesses were often unknown to
the defendant before the trial had begun. This resulted in many cases only lasting a morning
and nearly always against the defendant. The effect of this can be seen with the number of
Whigs executed due to the Rhye house plot nearly being the same to the amount of those
executed during the popish plot showing the increase in his power with the removal of his
enemies. Finally, Charles used his powers of granting charters to boroughs to issue 51 new
ones between 1681 to 1685 giving him greater control of the membership of the
corporation within the borough. This was key in giving more political power as towns were
responsible for around 80% of MPs meaning Charles now could leverage for more support
within Parliament. Whilst, often he did not make major changes like removing people from
office even when they were his opponents meaning his official power didn’t increase, he still
had the soft power of being able to influence events. Charles continued this purging of
Whigs in London which was a safe haven for Whigs due to their support
and Whig sympathisers as Justices of the peace. Charles heavily punished the city by not
granting a new charter and leading positions were no longer elected so he could appoint the
mayor and alderman. This was important as the potential instability that could be caused by
London can be seen when there was a tax boycott in 1659. So, Charles gained more political
power by his greater control over local government making the power shared between the
crown and Parliament more equal and made sure potential instability against the crown was
very unlikely which saw a big change from the problems that towns and especially London
caused his father with uprisings. However, whilst London was the exception and elsewhere
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